Tenerife AirportPassenger rights at Tenerife’s airports
What compensation are you entitled to if your flight is delayed, cancelled or diverted due to fog in the north?
Delays, cancellations and overbooking
If your flight departs from or arrives at an airport in Tenerife and is delayed, cancelled or you are denied boarding, you have rights recognised by the Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. It applies to all flights departing from an airport in the European Union, regardless of the airline, and to flights arriving in the EU when operated by an EU airline. The Canary Islands are part of the European Union, so it also covers flights between the islands.
It is a right that is exercised with the airline, not opposite the airport.
What exactly are you entitled to?
Right to care. Once a delay reaches a certain length, the airline must provide food and drink commensurate with the waiting time, keep passengers informed, and arrange accommodation with transport if they are forced to stay overnight. This is not contingent on whether the airline is at fault.
Refund or alternative transport. In the event of long delays or cancellations, you can choose between a refund or being taken to your destination as soon as possible.
Financial compensation. Cover is provided for cancellations, denied boarding and long delays on arrival, with the amounts payable depending on the distance, but it does not apply if the cause is an extraordinary circumstance. And here is the point that most affects Tenerife: fog at the North airport is a weather circumstance, so the delays and diversions it causes do not normally give rise to compensation — although assistance is provided.
How to make a claim. Firstly, in writing to the airline. If they do not reply within the specified time or if their reply is unsatisfactory, the competent authority in Spain is the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA). Keep your boarding pass and any receipts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Financial compensation, usually not: weather conditions are considered extraordinary circumstances. Assistance and alternative transport to your destination, yes — the airline must take you there, and that includes transfers between airports.
It’s always the airline’s responsibility. The airport manages the infrastructure; the flight, the delay and your ticket are the airline’s responsibility.
Yes. The Canary Islands are part of the European Union, and inter-island flights are covered in the same way as any other intra-EU flight.